Is celebrating Christmas on December 25th something that came from paganism? NO.

To summarize the notion that "Christmas is a Pagan Holiday":

“We are told, by popular cultural and academic tradition of recent centuries, that there’s no way Jesus was born on December 25. In fact, the only reason we celebrate Christmas Day on December 25 is because the early Christians adapted a pagan holiday to hide their faith in a still-hostile culture”

It is argued that Emperor Constantine (early 300s) tried to Christianize a pagan holiday to make his new faith more acceptable to pagan Romans. He chose Dec. 25th, the date of Sol Invictus.

 

The Roman Festival of Saturnalia took place between December 17th and 23rd and honored the Roman god Saturn. The Romans also thought that the Solstice took place on December 25th. It's also thought that in 274 the Roman emperor Aurelian created 'Dies Natalis Solis Invicti' (meaning 'birthday of the unconquered sun') also called 'Sol Invictus' and it was held on December 25th.

The myth is that AFTER the pagans started celebrating 'Sol Invictus' (AD274) on December 25th, the Christians sometime soon after that chose December 25th to begin commemorating the Birth of Jesus.

However, THIS IS ENTIRELY UNTRUE! 

The facts are these:

1. We know that Christians had begun celebrating the Birth of Jesus as early as 125AD!

2. The December 25th date was being used by Christians LONG before the celebration of 'Sol Invictus'!

“December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date.” Sextus Julius Africanus was a Roman Christian historian. He placed the Incarnation on March 25 and thus Jesus’ nativity on December 25.

What does this mean? Christians were known to have been celebrating Christmas on the 25th of December 53 years before the pagans were celebrating their pagan holiday!

While it is true that some traditions associated with Christmas were 'imported' from pagan practices, especially as Christianity spread into Northern Europe, it is simply a total myth that December 25th is a date stolen from paganism. 

There are many Christmas traditions that have no association with paganism whatsoever - do your homework, discover what those are, and use them to commemorate the Birth of Jesus this December! 

While it is true we may never know the exact date of Jesus' Birth, some of the earliest Christians believed it to be on December 25th - and you can celebrate it on that date with full assurance that you are not doing so from a pagan origin!